A majority of
American voters believe the Sept. 11 terrorist attack was a more significant
historical event than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a poll says.

The Quinnipiac
University survey found sharp divisions among age groups about the overall
importance of each event, although even people who were alive in 1941 put
Sept. 11 ahead.

Overall, 56 percent of voters picked Sept. 11 as more
significant, while 33 percent picked Pearl Harbor. Voters older than 65
picked Sept. 11 as more significant 42 percent of the time, compared to
39 percent for Pearl Harbor.

The poll surveyed 1,080 registered voters nationwide
between Aug. 17 and Aug. 23 and had a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage
points.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, killed 2,400
Americans and prompted the United States' entry into World War II, a conflict
that claimed tens of millions of lives. The attack also set in motion the
events that led to atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and four decades
of U.S. military action in Asia.